The Deadworld Chronicles: DOR 01

Along the way they'd found a couple vending machines, bringing Frank to muse in thought How ghetto can this place be? Chained linked, venders, give it a green sludge water pool, an ice machine, a laundry room with only two washers and broken dryer, and you'd have a Chicago slum. However the venders were welcome as he'd return when he could and smash the sons of bitches wide open and take what he could. Those years in poverty on the streets had taught him to be mindful of all surroundings and work his way through any city-structured labyrinth offered up.

Frank was keenly aware of voices from time to time possibly coming from other apartments but at the moment it was every man for himself, and he wasn't about to take any unnecessary risks that put his daughter in danger, he just kept mental notes of where all the voices came from and kept on.

"I'm sorry, dad." Lexi's voice jolted Frank who looked towards his dark haired angel, turning away from the apartment window he'd just blanketed over to keep light from getting out.

"What, sweetheart?" he asked.

"I'm sorry..." she repeated softly.

His eyes furrowed as he sat beside her, back to the living room wall, tightly together, he asked her "Why are you sorry?, you haven't done anything?"

"Exactly" she sighed "I've done nothing but freak up and clam up."

She looked so exhausted and defeated, he knew it wasn't true, he just pulled her close with his arm around her shoulder and rested his chin at the crown of her beautiful raven hair. "You've experienced shock, honey. In desperate situations everyone experiences shock in one form or another." He threw his other arm around her, trying to keep from weeping as everything began to sink in "Some of us get our moment first, then hone our survival instincts while others get everything done, then fall into it themselves for a time. Succumbing to tears, madness, or suicide." She looked up at his eyes, noting his far away gaze that stayed on the blanket-covered window. "By the grace of God" he kept along with an almost hypnotized grace "By the grace of God, only the tears and fear cover us in shock, that we may again be survivors and make it till day break, lest we falter under the weight of our broken spirit...oh God...if we make it till morning."

A single tear rolled down Lexi's cheek before she stretched her legs along the floor and crawled down to lay her head on his lap, noticing the sharp pain from the .45 in her pocket, pulling it out and keeping it close at hand as she found the closest thing to comfort with her cheek upon her fathers thigh. She swallowed the sadness that came with thoughts of mom and Amber...

"Daddy I..." she almost sobbed, but swallowed. "I couldn't...I couldn't save them...I was waiting in the car when everything went crazy. It happened so fast...so fucking." She stopped and turned an eye up expecting a scorn for the bad word spoken "So fucking...fucking fast. I got scared and watching them attack mom, I wanted to help I was too scared, Daddy..." she choked and heaved as her eyes got heavy with the tears, they wouldn't come, but her cheek felt wet. "Daddy I'm so sorry. I could have saved her, but I was so scared I just wouldn't move."

The heavy thumping in her breasts, sort of breath, her eyes watering and yet she realized her cheek, wet with tears, not her own. Lexi turned her face up and saw that same empty stare in his eyes, but his cheeks were washing over with tears as they fell without sight of stopping onto her own.

...the fire...

Frankie simply ran his fingers threw her hair and kept his gaze on the window... Lexi turned her body that she lay upon his thigh facing him. She remembered "Daddy...what about?..." she dare not finish that sentence. Dad use to call him fag boy, the fucking sissy but she loved her brother so much. She wouldn't dare say his name to daddy even now after the horrible fight they had just a year ago when he'd come home, sat down with mom and dad and told them he was gay and wanted to have a sex change. Dad almost killed him, that old Roman Catholic religion papa adopted upon join with "uncles" Freddy, Paulie, Bob, Phil, and Sammy...little did she know, at that moment, daddy's heart ached for his son, daughter, whatever that sweet child wanted to be, he'd give anything to have his children back in his arms, all of them.

...the fire...

IV.

THE FIRE!!! Frank's mind screamed as he stared into the fire Adam had set in the camp spit, the darkest of nights and a fire was burning deep in the middle of nowhere. The stinkers are attracted to sound, movement, and light! Hopelessness was only a rising cloud of smoke from here if there were any of those corpsy bastards near enough to begin a slow dragging trek up the hills where the flames were dividing the night.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" his shock had left his mind as he jumped from his near slumber and attacked the flames, waking everybody instantly.

"Daddy, what?" Lexi couldn't finish as dirt and dust rose up and nearly choked her with daddy's frantic attack on the fire that kept them warm.

Adam tried to tackle Frank, who side stepped and tossed him to the splinter infested dirt and pulled his side arm extended with aim for Donovan's left eye. The others watched turning their cell phone lights on as the fire died and Frank pushed Adam away with a hard unforgiving scowl.

"Are you crazy?" Adam sputtered moving backward.

"Crazy?" Frank snarled "CRAZY?! Stunad! You set up a beacon for every walking stiff for miles to see and you ask if I'm crazy? You fucking cuccio!"

Looking around in the darkness, seeing only the faces enlightened by the glow of the cell phones "put those fucking things away and get in the cars, we're leaving." He forced his way through the girls and yanked open the minivan door where the oblivious Geri had fallen asleep listening to her ipod. "Up!" he growled at the startled girl.

Geri Sullivan nearly clawed at the man with fiery hatred, to have her wrist caught, and his free hand taking her neck. "Let go..." she tried to choke out. "Listen, you little buchiach!" Frank swore dragging her away from the dome light of the vehicle before kicking the door shut, shrouding them once more in darkness "I don't give a flaming horses cunt what you think I did to hurt you, what happened back there was an unfortunate set of circumstances that cost a few lives in order to save others! You wanna bite off my peccadillo over imagined offenses, do it another time, but for now I'm calling the shots and I'm telling you to back the fuck off!"

He turned to face the other four, with his eyes having adjusted to the dark he couldn't tell if the roving shadows somewhere to the back were threatening or not, but no chances were gonna be taken as he threw Donovan his keys and pushed Geri towards him. "Take her in your car." He took Lexi and looked towards the dark shadows of Shannon and Molly "Pick a cab and get in, we're leaving before any more of those rotting cock suckers gets close enough to skin my cannoli with its teeth."

With Lexi in hand, Frank climbed into the burgundy colored mini van, reintroducing the wires to get it started, and with everyone seated, Shannon and Molly in the back seat, Adam and Geri in the RAV, the engine roared to life and the highbeams glared enough to reveal a least a couple dozen walkers slowly coming towards the party. Arms out stretched and teeth gnarled and hungry...Geri and Adam watched in the RAV with shock and awe with his remark "...that half crazed guinea was right."